Silky Smooth

As you may recall, I tend to get a bit hysterical about the purity of my beauty products, both face and body. The list of products that I look to avoid precludes me from using most drugstore and department store lotions, serums and creams, so I suppose you could argue that I've taken things a bit far. However, as I've had good luck finding non-toxic replacements for all of the products I'd used previously, I've been perfectly content with my vaguely radical (some would probably say unnecessary) lifestyle choice.


But there was just one exception. It is bizarrely difficult to find a good natural, affordable body lotion. Of course my beloved Dr. Hauschka makes a gorgeous range of lotions but at $40 for 4 ounces I just can't get on board. And all of the high quality drugstore brands insist on using those horrible hormone altering parabens and birth defect causing phlalates


So when I was wandering through Whole Foods a month or so back, I was mightily intrigued by a massive bottle of very hippie looking moisturizer called Everyday Shea.



32 ounces for $9.99?!! Sign me up! Unscented please.


Now I'll admit that it was a bit rocky in the beginning. Initially the pump delivered some sort of watery shea butter byproduct. I figured that this is what happens with such a painfully organic product, so I unscrewed the lid and attempted to stir the bottle with the long end of the pump. The tube that brings the lotion to the nozzle promptly fell off and I was on the verge of tossing the whole thing out but at the last moment I squeezed a bit out (the top of the bottle seemed to have none of this separation issue) of the pumpless bottle onto my parched hand and was quite taken with the product.


Despite being made of shea butter it is completely non-greasy, even the unscented version has a slight but intoxicating chocolatey scent, and the product keeps the ever-attractive scaly skin well at bay.


And if you care about this type of thing, the proceeds go towards a shea butter cooperative in Togo that produces the stuff. A noble enterprise indeed.